Abstract

We report the first demonstration of vacuum field emission from an electron source fabricated from self‐assembling biomolecular composite microstructures. Diacetylenic lipid DC8,9PC is used to form hollow, 0.5 μm diam, ≳50 μm long, tubelike structures that are subsequently plated with metal and formed into an aligned composite in an epoxy matrix. The composite material is thin‐sectioned across the axis of alignment and then etched to expose the plated tubules. The sharp edges of the exposed metal tubules produce a very large local electric field enhancement, allowing for the vacuum field emission of significant current densities at relatively low applied macroscopic fields (≤60–80 kV/cm).